Building on APIs? Read the Terms or Get Shut Down

Zynga, Tweetbot, and the risks of building your business on someone else's land.

"Platform Risk" is the biggest threat to API-first startups. If you build your business entirely on top of Twitter, Reddit, or OpenAI's API, you are a tenant, not an owner.

The Twitter Lesson

For years, Twitter encouraged 3rd party apps. Then, one day, they changed their Terms of Service to ban "replicating core service functionality." Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and dozens of businesses died overnight.

The Reddit Revolt

Reddit recently started charging massive fees for API access to kill off 3rd party apps like Apollo. When the platform needs revenue, the developers are the first to suffer.

Clauses to Watch

Right to Terminate: Most API terms allow them to cut you off "at any time, for any reason."
Competition Clause: If your app gets too popular, they can clone it and ban you.
Data Caching: You usually cannot store their data. You must fetch it live. This makes migration impossible.

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